Prologue

Oath on the moon

“Yet their love was to last only as long as the words carved in the wet sand, before the waves came to erase them”

The night had just fallen, and the room was cast into semi-darkness. A breeze wafted through the open window doors leading to the balcony. The only light was the moon’s glow, high in the starry sky. In the distance, the sea murmured, its powerful waves crashing against the rocks in a relentless litany.

On the large wooden bed, two bodies lay entwined. The young woman shivered, pressing closer to the warm body of her lover. Neither was asleep. He planted a kiss on her abundant blonde hair. Suddenly, scratching sounds at the door caused the young woman to sit up abruptly, her heart pounding. It was the sign. The man also rose, kissing her bare shoulder.

"It’s time," she said, her voice tight.

"I don’t want to leave you," he whispered, caressing her cheek.

She turned towards him, cradling his face in her hands, her green eyes brimming with love. Leaning in, she inhaled his scent, fighting back tears. "If my people find you, they will kill you. I couldn’t bear it."

"Come with me," he pleaded.

Tears escaped her closed eyes, which he gently kissed away. "It’s impossible. By loving you, I have already broken human and divine laws. I can’t risk further angering the gods."

He then rolled her beneath him, pressing his lips to hers. "I’m not afraid of your gods, I – "

She silenced him with a finger to his lips. "Do not blaspheme. I will pray for their blessing on your journey."

Slipping out of his embrace, she donned her dress lying at the bed’s foot, then approached the altar dedicated to her gods. Alkïan and Samrah, embodied good and evil, the absolute and the void, reason and madness, life itself – a tumultuous blend of bliss and affliction, akin to what she felt in that moment. She lit a candle, joined her hands and recited a prayer.

Hearing him leave the bed, she opened the double doors wider, letting in the cool night air. He approached, wrapping his arms around her. She rested her head on his shoulder, ignoring the sorrow tightening her chest and the tears still welling in her eyes. Her gaze settled on the moon.

In her world, a minor deity, but in the lands of her beloved, as he had taught her, the moon was a supreme goddess, reigning alone in their souls. A pang of jealousy seized her at the thought of another ruling his heart.

"Look at her, so luminous, dressed in her most sparkling attire. She’s probably rejoicing that you’re leaving me," she confided, pointing to the shining celestial body. "Your haughty goddess will forgive your infidelity if you return to her full of love and repentance. Then she will have won, and I will have lost everything."

"She is my mother and father, my creator and guardian. She suffers for her children. Don’t you see a red reflection in her flesh tonight? She bleeds as I bleed in my heart."

"Do you love me?" she whispered, clinging to his arms.

He turned her towards him, with a pained expression, wondering how she could doubt such a thing. Did he love her? It was the only certainty in his existence. He knew he would never be the same again. At that moment, he cursed fate for having given him such a gift, only to take it away immediately. How could life be so cruel? Before meeting her, he had thought death was coming to claim his soul. She had saved him, healing his wounds and bringing his heart back to life. For the first time, he had heard it beat, for her. He felt it would be so forever.

At that moment, he suffered a thousand deaths having to leave her. None of his battle wounds had ever been so painful. Even that time when he had taken an arrow straight to the chest now seemed mild in comparison to what he was enduring now. And there she stood, in front of him, more beautiful than ever, her gaze infinitely sad, waiting for an answer with even a hint of apprehension.

"Ask me if I breathe," he replied.

"Then promise me one thing."

"Anything you wish."

"Swear to me on this moon you worship so much that you won’t come back for me. You’ll forget me. When you return to your world, you will find a lovely young woman to marry," she murmured, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. "She will give you beautiful children, and you will live happily."

"No," he said against her mouth, "I can’t.” 

"The stars, my love, are against us. Swear it to me, I want to think of you and imagine you happy."

"I can’t."

"For my peace of mind, promise me," she pleaded, pressing her lips against his, taking his face in her hands. "Make this oath or I will die."

He couldn’t commit to such a thing. He gritted his teeth, furious against the relentless fate that united beings only to separate them better. He refused to make such a promise; despite the obstacles, there must be a solution. Reason whispered to him that there was none, which wouldn’t result in the sacrifice of several lives. That was why she wanted to extract such a promise from him, her love refused to be the cause of lives shattered by her fault. He admired her greatness of soul, yet he suffered to see her give up on him, on them. However, seeing her painful and imploring eyes filled with tears, he agreed, he would have accepted anything to spare her the slightest pain. Damn life. 

"I swear it to you on the moon," he whispered in a barely audible voice, but she heard him.

He then kissed her lips with the energy of despair. She clung to him desperately.

Three more knocks were heard at the door, the second sign, they couldn’t wait any longer. She let in her maid, who came to hide under precious fabrics the clothes for her lover. She dismissed her with a nod before closing the door.

She watched him dress in silence, trying to memorise his supple and quick movements as he donned his cuirass, praying to the gods that it was only a futile precaution. Seeing him struggle to tighten the straps at the back, she came to his aid. With an expert hand, she tightened the ties as she had done hundreds of times for another. 

For a few seconds, she allowed herself to dream that she was bound to him and not to the other, an indescribable happiness seized her. But she heard the voice of reason, that of her mother, reminding her that dreams were for shepherdesses. Queens, on the other hand, could not indulge in vain fantasies; they owed themselves to their kingdom, their homeland. Some were made for greatness and others for love. At that moment, she would have given up gold, palaces, to be just a peasant and keep this man.

Yet their love was to last only as long as the words carved in the wet sand, before the waves came to erase them. Before reality ruined the vows one dares not even whisper.

She came back to herself when he took her delicate hand in his and kissed it. Then she lost herself in their feverish kiss, which tasted of salt, her tears, his, she no longer knew.

She refused to hear the stones thrown against the windows. They informed her of the changing of the guard in a few minutes and this was his only chance.

She detached herself from him to open a hidden trap door under a rug, near the bed, which led to the stairs. At the end of which stood a trusted maid who would lead him to the dock, where he could discreetly leave the island by boat.

She fell into the arms of the man she loved, for one last kiss. But already her maid was whispering that time was pressing. She moved away from him, and he headed for the trap, but before going down, he came back to her for one last kiss.

"I will never forget you until my last breath, my queen," he declared against her lips.

She grabbed his arm, wanted to speak, but refrained, why cause him more grief? She contented herself with placing her necklace in his hands, a talisman for the long road ahead.

"May the gods guide your steps, my love, go."

Then the trap door closed on him, on her happiness, on her life.

Her legs could no longer support her, and she collapsed on the floor, a hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs. She then felt a pain in her abdomen, which made her double over. She placed her hand on her belly as if to protect the life growing inside her.

"No, not this, I beg you, it’s all I have left of him. Let me keep it, please," she implored, her gods, the moon itself of which she had only a blurred view through her tears.